We arrived at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport exhausted.

Cam had researched the transport situation and we wanted 4 x weekly Navigo cards so we could ride the Metro as much as we could all week. Of the ten ticketing machines at the airport, for people who are arriving in France and will likely need transport options, none actually sold them (they were top-up only or short trip machines), and the manned ticket office decided to close its window as confused tourists milled around wondering how the heck they were going to travel for the week.

Opting for the single trip ticket (a quarter of the price of the weekly ticket), we dragged ourselves and our luggage into the city, scraped our cases over cobblestone streets and up 4 flights of steps, and settled in to our apartment in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. The apartment is small, but close to restaurants and the Metro (like every part of the city), and while I have no doubt it is dripping in non-compliant electricity and plumbing work and has no air-con, it’s cute.

“Amélie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below…”

Amelie was one of my favourite films when it was released in 2001. I loved the red, green and blue colour-casts over each scene; the exploration of each of the unusual characters; and Amelie’s quirky take on life, all set against a glorious Montmartre backdrop. We re-watched Audrey Tautou as Amelie just last week, and set out to find the film’s locations.

1. Café des deux moulins

Amelie’s director Jean-Pierre Jeunet spruced up this place a treat for the film. There are thousands of perfect corner cafes in Paris. If you didn’t know about the film, you would not even look at this one twice. But we do, and we did. Jean-Pierre would have spent most of his time wheeling bins out of the way I reckon! The inside is just fabulous, although not a smoke counter in sight any more!

2. Collignon’s grocery store (aka Au Marche de la Butte)

What a nasty piece of work ol’ Collignon was. Amelie gas-lit him a treat as payback for the way he treated Lucien.

3. Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Who wouldn’t want to see the sweeping views of Paris from the summit of Montmartre anyway! Considering Europe’s architectural heritage, Sacré Coeur is not that old, built between 1875 and 1914. But it is grand and imposing, and acts as the backdrop for some of Amelie’s romantic shenanigans.